The Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) is a small taiga bunting with a rusty face and a white eye-ring, a rare breeder confined in Sweden to the northernmost mires. At just 12–14 cm long, with a wingspan of 21–23 cm and a weight of only 15–20 grams, it is among the smallest of the buntings. Its best field mark is the face pattern: a reddish-brown to rusty face framed by black bands, combined with a narrow white eye-ring that gives it an alert expression. The back is brown-streaked, the underside pale with sparse fine streaking on the breast and flanks, and the sexes look fairly similar, unlike many other buntings. The call is a short, sharp, smacking "tsick", often heard from birds in flight, while the song is a short, fast, trilling strophe with a thin, bright tone.
The species breeds across the taiga of northern Eurasia, reaching its westernmost limit in the very north of Norrland; the Swedish population is tiny, estimated at only 100–860 individuals and fluctuating between years, favouring mire edges with willow scrub and birch at the boundary of tundra and forest. Unusually for a Swedish breeder, it migrates east rather than south, wintering mainly in southern China, and is also a regular passage migrant at bird observatories in the south during autumn. The nest is well hidden on the ground, often in a tussock or under a bush in damp mire habitat, where the female lays 4–6 eggs; the short northern summer allows time for only a single brood. It feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, turning to seeds during migration and winter.
Read about this species in Swedish →